


Children Play During the End Days

by NateyNight



Category: Cuphead (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Angst, Bad Ending, Cuphead went by himself and Mugman stayed at home, Overdosing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-15 19:12:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13037601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NateyNight/pseuds/NateyNight
Summary: After Cuphead went to collect the contracts by himself and doesn't come home, Mugman takes it upon himself to go looking for him.





	1. Long Night

Mugman was left at home.

After Cuphead bet both his and Mugman’s souls and proceeded to lose them to the Devil, he was kind enough to give them until midnight the next day to collect the souls of the other debtors which in return for he might let them keep their souls. 

Taking the opportunity, they agreed and the pair ran home to ask Elder Kettle for help. After being briefly scolded by the elder, he pulled a potion from the cabinets, explaining that it would help in the fight for the contracts, but there was only enough for one of them. A brief argument between the two brothers occured over who would due the deed of collecting contracts and eventually Cuphead won out. Before leaving,the cup was warned by Elder Kettle that when he made it to the Devil, he should do the right thing.

Then Cuphead was gone.

Over the course of the day, Mugman could see peculiar sights from the window of Elder Kettle’s cottage. Slowly, but surely color began to drain from everything around them, the nearby fauna began to wilt then die, and the sky became an ashy gray with a fog rolling in. He was told multiple times that this was a side effect of Cuphead collecting the soul contracts and once Cuphead had done the right thing, everything would go back to normal. Still though, Mugman had a bad feeling about the situation.

Mugman and Elder Kettle sat at their kitchen table, both kept eyeing the grandfather clock in absolute silence, waiting for it to strike midnight. At the moment it was about 11:55 PM. Elder Kettle was the first to break the silence.

“My, Cuphead sure is cutting it close…”

Silence lingered after that, until the clock struck twelve, each chime seeming to echo the realization that it was over, that the future was unsure. Even so Mugman, still kept his eyes glued on the clock, watching the time pass, as if that would make everything okay.

12:05 AM.

12:10 AM.

12:15 AM.

12:20 AM.

A choked sob escaped from Mugman. Cuphead was coming back, right? He was just late, right? He had to have won, right?

12:25 AM.

12:30 AM.

12:45 AM.

Mugman’s eyes began to droop, any moment right? Cuphead would be home any moment, he kept telling himself. A yawn escaped him.

1:10 AM.

Just a bit longer and Cuphead would be home and they would hug and laugh and be told it was time for bed. Though it was becoming quite hard to keep his eyes open.

1:30 AM

1:50 AM

2:00 AM

The young mug felt himself be lifted up by Elder Kettle and carried to bed. It reminded him of when he was a toddler, he would be too tired to move and while being carried to bed, to gentle bouncing would fully lull him to sleep.

Elder Kettle on the other hand, was wide awake, looking at everything around them with a sense of melancholy, every item, every picture, every piece of furniture, held memories, both good and bad, all of it now meaning both the world to him and yet nothing at all. 

After what seemed like eternity, they finally arrived at the door to Mugman’s room. Elder Kettle stood there a moment, afraid to open the door, knowing once he was inside he would have to carry out his plan. Eventually he let out a quiet sigh, and opened the door. 

Once to his room, Mugman found himself being tucked in gently and being handed a few pills by the elder. Looking at them with wet but confused eyes, he spoke, “Elder Kettle?”

The old kettle’s eyes looked sad with hints of regret but he spoke with a confident and soft voice, “It’s been a long day Mugman, these will help you get some rest. Tomorrow we’ll go around looking for Cuphead. I’m sure he didn’t come home tonight because it’s dark and hard to see.”

The mug nodded and downed the pills, relaxing and closing his eyes. Elder Kettle turned off the lights and sat on the edge of Mugman’s bed, slowly rubbing circles on his back. He could feel Mugman’s breathing slow as he drifted to sleep, and get slower, and slower, and slower, until there was nothing… no not nothing. He could still see faint rise and fall of his chest if he looked close. With luck he had succeeded with what he planned to do, Mugman wouldn’t be waking up anytime soon.

Slowly Elder Kettle raised himself off the bed and made his way towards his room, taking deep breaths. He arrived at a large wardrobe in the corner, worn and caked with dust. He felt along the top and pulled down a key, coughing as dust came down with it. With shaky hands and teary eyes, he unlocked the wardrobe, grabbing it’s only contents, a shotgun.

Eyes solemn, he left his room, his cottage and headed into the forest, towards the Devil’s Casino, a single thought in his mind.

He was going to take the Devil on himself.


	2. Quiet Afternoon

Mugman woke up coughing violently, dust tickling the back of his throat. He looked around groggily, confusion clear on his face. Why was everything covered in dust? He  tried to remember the last thing that happened to him. Fear took over as he remembered the deal and the long night waiting for his brother who didn’t come home.

“CUPHEAD!” he screamed, throwing himself out of bed.

Faceplanting right onto the ground.

Slowly, he got up from the floor, using his bed as support, since apparently his legs didn’t want to work. Lightly flexing them, he tried to stand up without support. Mugman was a bit shaky and his legs did buckle a bit but other then that he was doing a bit better. _“Golly, must have really tired myself out,”_ he thought absentmindedly. Maybe Elder Kettle would let him borrow one of his spare canes or something.

Speaking of Elder Kettle, with how loud Mugman screamed, it was surprising he didn’t come bursting into the mug’s room. The thought came to him that the kettle probably went to find and bring Cuphead home. A sigh escaped, he was left at home again, especially when he wanted to help find his brother.

He resigned himself to get back into bed, until Elder Kettle and cuphead came home. Looking up on the wall he noticed the clock said 1:34 PM. He gave a nervous laugh, in any other situation he would have been scolded if he’d slept this late. Him and Cuphead were supposed to be up at 9 AM sharp.

With another sigh, Mugman looked around for what was nearby him, hoping to find a book or something to do to pass the time. With no luck, he decided to gaze out the window, eyes widening with a gasp. The deep, ash-like fog was still there only much worse. He couldn’t even see anything really, only more fog. He felt a shiver creep down his spine. Elder Kettle had went out when it like this? His brother was stuck out there when it was like this? He couldn’t just sit in bed and wait when his family was out there!

With renewed vigor, Mugman practically threw himself out of bed, clinging onto the bedpost to keep himself from falling face first onto the ground again. He properly righted himself before flinging himself onto a chair where he repeated the process of righting himself and flung himself to the open door.

Mugman continued to use this process to move throughout the hallway, though over time less violently, as his legs seemed to have begun to work. Unfortunately, he had still knocked over a table with photos on it in the middle of the hallway using this strategy. Making a mental note to apologize to Elder Kettle when he saw him again, Mugman continued to make his way to a closet at the end of the hall.

Once at the closet, the mug retrieved one of Elder Kettle’s spare canes and began to make his way towards the kitchen with much more stability.

The moment he entered the kitchen, Mugman began to prep. While he knew the elder most likely already brought some supplies with him, bring more wouldn’t hurt. The mug made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, filled up a few thermoses with water, and his own head with water (he was going to put in juice but it tasted funny). Putting everything in a bag, he made his way to the front door, looking back to the empty, dusty house. Once he and the rest of his family came back, they would clean this place head to toe. With a nervous sigh, Mugman turned the knob and stepped out of the house.


	3. Dying Afternoon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mugman sets off by himself.

Mugman blinked a few times, trying to see through the thick fog. After a few moments and lot of squinting, he managed to see enough in front of him to continue. Grateful he decided to grab the cane, he began to make his way southeast towards the bridge that would lead him to the main part of the first Inkwell Isle, using the cane to both help him walk and to feel the area around him.  

Once at the bridge, Mugman began to make his way across, slow and steady. The bridge was much more worn than he remembered last, a few pieces missing here and there and several pieces of jagged wood poking out of the remaining boards. Each creak seemed to echo in the absolute silence. At last the mug reached the end, looking back at the bridge briefly as he hoped the nice apple man who usually spent his time there was okay.

Looking ahead, Mugman considered how he would start his journey. He decided he would go south first and if he didn’t find Elder Kettle and Cuphead there, he would loop back and go north. 

As he continued onward, he passed by a broken down, decrepit cart. It took him a moment to realize it was Porkrind’s Emporium. “Good golly, this has sure seen better days,” Mugman muttered to himself, finding speaking calmed his nerves significantly, “Wonder what happened. It was only yesterday when we passed by here running home and it seemed fine then,” he pondered.

Mugman continued onward, still talking to himself to help fill the silence. He was talking about what he would say to Cuphead when he saw him again when he came upon what looked like a large garden. Upon entering the garden, the blue nosed mug recognized it at the home of the Root Pack, who at the moment were nowhere to be seen. He’d been here a few times with Cuphead and Elder Kettle, usually close to the end of harvesting season, and Elder Kettle would ask for any spare vegetables and give them spare seeds in return. That same night Elder Kettle would always make the best stew, and him and his brother would go to bed fully and fall asleep the moment they laid down.

A pang of sadness hit Mugman and the fact he was utterly alone seemed to fully hit him as he felt tears well up in his eyes. He missed his family awful bad and he couldn’t shake the feeling that they wouldn’t come back home unless he went and brought them home himself. With a choked squeak, the rest of the tears and fear and pain came out in one big scream.

With that, the ground began to shake as three figures rose up from the dry earth.

Before Mugman stood the Root Pack and he almost sighed with relief until he looked closer at them. All their color had been muted and it had looked like parts of all of them had peeled off, while others looked rotted. Then there were the eyes. The three vegetables had 3 eyes total between them, with Psycarrot having the most at two. The eyes, too, looked rotted, having a gross black-yellow hue and pus leak which made Mugman want to vomit. The eyeless sockets looked like an endless void, though Mugman thought he might have seen some maggots take refuge in there.

Slowly and silently, the mug began to back away from the horrible sight before him, trying to get his breathing to even out so they wouldn’t hear him. He kept his eyes trained on the monsters before him and once he hit the fence, began to frantically feel for the gate to escape this hellish nightmare.

Eventually Mugman managed to find the gate and began to fiddle with the lock, refusing to tear his gaze until he managed to get it. The gate swung open with a loud creak.

Then what was formerly the Root Pack noticed him.

The pack of vegetables began to make their way towards him as he frantically tried to leave the garden, only to find roots had managed to curl around his feet.  Mugman desperately began to pull and yank at them, dropping his cane to do so, but it seemed like no use, it wasn’t helping. He began to panic. Was this how he was going to die? Without seeing his brother or Elder Kettle again. He wished he’d stayed in the house and waited, not tried to play hero.

As the veggies closed in, Mugman closed his eyes and allowed tears to flow freely. This was the end, wasn’t it?

Mugman heard the sound of fire and opened his eyes to see the pack move away and head back into the holes they’d come out of.

“Don’t you know better than to attack him? You all are in so much trouble,” a voice chimed while a few more shots headed towards the Root Pack.

Mugman’s eyes widened. He knew that voice too well. He searched for the source of the voice, eyes locking onto and his expression brightening.

“CUPHEAD!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ;D


	4. Lively Evening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reunion at last

Mugman found his feet free of the roots holding them in place and used the opportunity to leave the garden from hell and race towards the figure in the tree.

“Cuphead! It’s me, Mugman!” he called, hoping his brother would hear him and come down.

He reached the base of the tree and stopped, looking upward the tall oak, “Cuphead?” Mugman called again though the figure seemed to have not heard him. He still couldn’t see details due to the fog, but he could see it had a semicircle shaped head and he looked like maybe he was about as tall as Cuphead was.

The mug tried once more, “Cuphead? Is that you?”

This time the figure in the tree seemed to have heard him, jumping off of a branch, down in front of Mugman, who took a step back in shock. He had the same red eyes, same face, and same body shape, but everything else was off. His straw and trouser color was now a hue of purple, his head had cracks and porcelain missing from it, his straw was severely damaged, and overall he just looked...off. No that wasn’t the right word, wrong was. 

This wasn’t his brother, this couldn’t be Cuphead and Mugman needed to leave this monstrous doppelganger before he got hurt. He moved to back away.

And found himself being tightly hugged.

“Mugsy, it’s been ages! I’ve been hoping I’d see you around!” 

Mugman’s eyes widened, the only person who called him ‘Mugsy’ was Cuphead. Oh jeez, what had happened to him?

The mug attempted to pry his affectionate assaillant off of him with little luck. “Uh, if you would k-kindly let go of me C-Cuphead, I’d a-appreciate it,” he quietly stammered, fear beginning to seap into his voice. 

At once, Cuphead released him, “Gosh Mugsy, where have you been? I’ve been looking all over Inkwell Isles for you months and, to be honest, have you looked at yourself in the mirror? You look horrible. We need to get you cleaned up and get you new clothes. Maybe the Boss would have some? Also, what in the hell were you doing getting near the soulless former debtors, are you trying to get yourself killed?”

Mugman’s head was spinning with everything that spewed out of his brother’s mouth. He had somehow forgotten that Cuphead had a habit of speaking fast and shooting rapid fire questions. “Cuppy please slow down while I try to think,” the mug whined before a realization hit him, “Wait, a few months since you’ve seen me? Cuphead it was only yesterday when you went out to collect contracts from the debtors.

“Nuh-uh,” Cuphead retorted

“Yeah-huh,” Mugman shot back.

“It was absolutely more than a day ago. Cause I’ve been counting how long I’ve been working for Boss and it’s been exactly 155 days since I started working for them,” the cup finished.

Mugman stood there, jaw hanging open slightly. 155 days was a little over 6 months. Had he really been sleeping for 6 months? If so, why didn’t Elder Kettle try and wake him and where was he now, since he clearly wasn’t with Cuphead. 

Speaking of Cuphead, “Cuppy, what happened to you? You look really different and kinda scary…” Mugman trailed off, not really knowing what to say next.

Thankfully the cup took over and began to ramble again, “Well, while I was collecting contracts I honestly had a lot of fun. It was fun shooting at the debtors and trying to get their contracts. Plus it was really awesome that every time I got shattered-”

“You got  _ shattered? _ ” Mugman chimed in, eyes widening to the size of dinner plates.

“Yeah, the debtors really didn’t want to give up their contracts,” Cuphead waved off, “if I got shattered though, I would revive almost instantly and try again until I got them. Like I said, it was awesome and I had fun.” 

“Eventually I had gotten all the contracts and got back to Inkwell Hell. Once I get there, the manager King Dice wants me to fight him too! So I did. And I won! So once I get to the Devil, he give me another deal, see? I can hand the contracts over to him and join him or I can refuse and fight him.”

At once everything clicked for Mugman, though part of him didn’t want to believe his brother had really been that foolish, that stupid, to hand over the contracts, “C-Cuppy, please… Please tell me you didn’t hand over those contracts…”

Cuphead’s response came with a sharp-tooth smile, “It was fun to fight though, I never wanted it to end. So I handed over those contracts to the devil and look at me now! I’ve never had more fun!”

Mugman had an idea where this was going, “Does that mean the reason your here is for my soul?” He gulped at the thought of his brother beating him senseless then taking his soul away, startled out of that thought by the sound of his brother laughing.

“You’re joking right? Calm down bro, I’m not here for your soul.”

Mugman breathed a sigh of relief.

“But I am here for you. Over the last few months, I’ve been looking all over Inkwell Isle One to find you. I didn’t think you’d left it, but just in case I asked King Dice to keep watch over the Die Houses so we’d know for sure.”

“Cuphead...I was at home, apparently I was sleeping for all that time. I woke up this afternoon thinking it was the day after you were supposed to get the contracts. I guess the sleeping pills Elder Kettle gave me must have been a bit too strong…” the mug laughed nervously, it getting worse seeing a brief flash of fury cross his brother’s face as the mention of their caretaker.

“I couldn’t get in there…”, the cracked up muttered, “ _ Home _ , apparently has some protection around it that won’t let demons in, otherwise I probably would have found you and woken you up.” Head down, he clenched his fists together and took a moment to breathe before he rightened himself and put on a wide, sharp-tooth smile for his brother, “Now that you’re outside of it though, there’s no need to go back, right? Since it’s getting late already and the fog makes it hard to see, we should camp at Porkrind’s old emporium. I’ve done that a few times since the old pig abandoned it.”

Mugman’s eyes looked up at the sky to see the sun’s position, or at least attempted to. While he couldn’t see the sun, he could definitely see around him that it was much darker than it was previously. “A-actually I think I w-would rather spend the night back at h-home than out here here…” Mugman attempted to turn away and head back the way he came.

Cuphead however grabbed and held onto his hand with a surprisingly strong grip.

“There’s no need to go back there since we’re together, _ right _ ?” Cuphead’s smile seemed to get a lot more toothy and his eyes seemed to glow red. Mugman felt a shiver crawl up his spine.

“Y-yeah Cuppy, right,” the poor mug stammered out.

“Good. Now let’s go grab the cane and bag of stuff you left in the garden and set out. I’m sure you don’t want to forget any of that stuff.” Cuphead seemed to have calmed down and his teeth and eyes seemed to go back to normal (as normal as they could be with how the cup looked now).

Yet he still kept an iron grip on Mugman’s hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I probably won't upload for the next two days. After that hopefully i'll be back to posting though.

**Author's Note:**

> "This should be a fun ride", I say as I have the next chapter and a half done.
> 
> I'm trying to write at least 1000 words a day and to get this done by January so with luck there should be frequent updates.
> 
> Also I know in the beginning the pace is a bit too fast but hopefully as chapters go one it'll be the right speed.
> 
> Enjoy


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